Bill Tieleman is one of BC's best known communicators, political commentators and strategists.
Bill writes a politics column Tuesdays in 24 Hours newspaper and The Tyee online magazine.
Bill has been Communications Director in the B.C. Premier's Office and at the BC Federation of Labour.
Bill owns West Star Communications, a consulting firm providing strategy and communication services for labour, business, non-profits and government.

There are
two things guaranteed for Thursday's federal-provincial climate change conference
in Vancouver: plenty of hot air and hypocrisy.

Oh, of
course Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will wax eloquent about how much he's done
about climate change already in his first 130 days in office.

And premiers
from "boast to boast" will claim they are doing a fantastic job with
carbon taxes, cap and trade, green programs and electric cars.

But in truth,
Trudeau's likely biggest contribution so far to climate change has been
negative -- jetting around the world and emitting untold amounts of greenhouse
gas to visit
six foreign countries stretching from Manila, Philippines to Davos,
Switzerland.

The
premiers, meanwhile, are far more concerned with the disastrous drop in world
oil and gas prices than they are with climate change.

Natural
resource exporting provinces British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and
Newfoundland have all been pummelled, while manufacturing centres like Ontario
and Quebec have also felt the consequences of a battered national economy still
hugely dependent on fossil fuels.

But being
politicians, much lip service will be paid to carbon pricing, renewable energy,
green jobs and making polluters pay. Let the greenwashing begin.

Climate
credibility?

My bet is
the premiers are privately praying harder than Pope Francis for China to start
booming again and buy our oil, gas, liquefied natural gas, coal, potash, copper
and anything else that produces billions in tax revenue to pay for public
services.

And none
need prayers answered more than Trudeau. He has gone from promising
to balance the budget last April to upwards of a $30-billion deficit this year
alone.

Not only is
Trudeau going deeply in debt, but his credibility in keeping budget promises
could undermine his climate change commitments, too.

Trudeau
started on deficits claiming determination to avoid them.

"It's a
well-established fact. Liberals balance budgets. Conservatives have been
running deficits," Trudeau said in April 2015. "Our platform will be
fully costed, fiscally responsible and a balanced budget."

Whoops.

What he said
a few months later was: "Our plan features three years of historic
investment in the Canadian economy. That growth will eliminate the Harper
deficit and we will balance the budget in 2019."

And whoops
again -- what Trudeau finally resorted
to last week in the House of Commons was: "We inherited a need to invest
in our economy, to fix the wrongs of this previous [Conservative]
government," without mentioning the massive deficit dollar figure.

Given that,
can anyone take his environmental guarantees seriously?

Then
there's Premier Green

But no one
beats BC Liberal Premier Christy Clark on green hypocrisy.

While Clark
claims, "We can be the world's clean energy superpower," the reality
is that the Canadian Wind Energy Association just blew out of B.C. due to her
government's lack of interest in renewable energy.

"Despite
the hard work and efforts of CanWEA and other stakeholders over many years, we
have not yet secured any significant new opportunities for wind energy in B.C.
and both the government and BC

Hydro have
indicated that they do not expect to proceed with a new call for power within
the next decade," read a recent letter
to Liberal MLAs.

"In
response, the CanWEA board has determined that the association must shift
resources and effort from BC to the emerging Alberta and Saskatchewan
markets," it concluded.

Clark's
style of hot air on alternative energy almost makes ex-prime minister Stephen
Harper's begrudging agreement
with a G7-countries plan to end the use of fossil fuel by 2100 look
refreshingly candid and hopeful -- almost.

And of
course if the long promised, never delivered liquefied natural gas industry
ever builds export plants in B.C. -- and here's hoping -- our climate change
targets will go out the window, without other measures.

Addressing
hard realities

Meanwhile,
not to be outdone by politicians posturing, some environmentalists and prophets
of doom will demand our leaders implement the painful prescriptions outlined by
Naomi Klein's biblical book This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate
-- before Noah's Ark is needed.

Klein, who
is speaking in Vancouver March 11, believes
that "Our economic system and our planetary system are now at war" --
so presumably capitalism must be recycled, consigned to the food scraps bin of
history.

But
"Workers of the world unite -- you have nothing to lose but your SUVs,
flat screen TVs, computers, cell phones, microwaves and Xboxes!" may not
resonate.

So prepare for
announcements of imminent Armageddon from environmentalists on the one hand and
grandiose platitudes from politicians on the other.

Neither truly
addresses the harder reality, that climate change progress requires more than
preaching to the converted or predictable promises without practical plans.power
by attacking people with disabilities should not be tolerated.

Bill Tieleman and Senator Larry Campbell, former Vancouver mayor

Jim Sinclair, Cindy Oliver, Ken Georgetti and Bill Tieleman

Bill Tieleman's coverage of the Basi-Virk/BC Legislature Raid Case praised by other journalists:

"This outstanding piece of journalism, in The Tyee, is the work of a journalist who has been deeply involved with this issue from the start and this article should be passed on as far and wide as possible."

"Bill Tieleman from 24 hours . . . . If you want to know about this trial and about this case, you have to read his blog – I mean, that’s just all there is to it – it’s required reading if you want to understand the BC Legislature Raid situation."

- Mike Smyth, columnist, The Province

"The Basi-Virk case....you’ve probably sat through more of these hearings and gone through more of the files and written about it than any other journalist in the province."

- Bill Good, host, The Bill Good Show, CKNW/Corus Radio Network

"Tieleman ...has done a first-rate job covering the trial."

- Paul Willcocks, columnist, the Victoria Times-Colonist

"Tieleman, who marries a considerable journalistic talent with one of the smartest political minds in the province, has been writing more web-exclusive material. And his coverage of the Basi-Virk trial is a must-read -- whether you're an insider or an outsider."

"24 Hours, the Vancouver paper that has been leading the coverage, as well as the hints of conspiracy in B.C."

- Norman Spector, columnist, Globe and Mail

"Although the major media in this circumstance has been giving the case significant coverage, Tieleman's reports on his blog have been outstanding.

The entire cut and thrust of legal wrangling and arguments has been covered and is accompanied by considered analysis.....His blog site coverage of the Basi-Virk trial is the most in depth treatment of one of British Columbia's biggest political scandals."

- Bill Bell, columnist, The North Shore News

"Mr. Tieleman has published online dispatches which, freed from the limitations of newsprint space or broadcast time, can run at length. They also remain available for those select readers who become obsessed with a case also known as Railgate.....

In another bizarre twist to a story with no shortage of them, Mr. Tieleman went to work one day in December only to discover his office had been ransacked. Bookcases had been tipped over and papers strewn, but nothing was missing.

To top it off, a press kit for the self-published novel The Raid, written by a retired military officer in Metchosin and featuring on its cover a photograph from the 2003 police raid, had been left in a conspicuous place."

- Tom Hawthorn, columnist, The Globe and Mail

Nobody has followed the Basi-Virk affair over its past five years with greater diligence than local journalist, Bill Tieleman....Tieleman deserves our thanks, a fistful of journalism awards and some merit citation for citizenship.